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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Yellowstone National Park’s Steamboat Geyser sped up its eruption cycle earlier in June, setting a new mark for recorded intervals between eruptions.

The geyser’s shortest rest between noted eruptions occurred June 15 when it blasted steam and water into the air only three days, three hours and 48 minutes after its previous spouting June 12.

Earlier quick recharges included a 1982 eruption after only four days, 19 hours and 43 minutes. On June 15, 2018, it went off after four days, 15 hours, 49 minutes. And on Sept. 12, 2018, it gushed forth after four days, 18 hours and 3 minutes.

Why have the eruptions sped up?

“I wish I could tell you,” said Michael Manga, of the University of California, Berkeley, who studies geysers.

[...]Manga added that it “should trouble everyone” that scientists can’t better explain geysers, since they are similar in many respects to their much more dangerous cousin, the volcano.

https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/yellowstone-s-tallest-geyser-breaks-its-record-for-shortest-time/article_af8e9ec4-1504-5113-8798-3cd3ac0700ff.html

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RandomFactor writes:

SpaceX's Starlink program launched an initial sixty satellites on May 23. At least three of these "are no longer in service" and "will passively deorbit." according to a spokesperson for the company.

In other words, the three spacecraft failed and will fall back to Earth, likely within a year because of their relatively low orbit of 273 miles (440 kilometers) above the planet's surface.

SpaceX seems relatively unfazed by the failures, though, since the company never expected all of them to function perfectly given the mission's experimental nature.

SpaceX intentionally implemented the satellites with minor variations.

On a brighter note, 45 of the satellites, which are equipped with small ion engines for maneuvering, have already reached their intended orbits. Five are moving towards their orbits, and five are pending evaluation before maneuvering. Another "[t]wo satellites are being intentionally deorbited to simulate an end of life disposal."

[N]ow that the majority of the satellites have reached their operational altitude, SpaceX will begin using the constellation to start transmitting broadband signals, testing the latency and capacity by streaming videos and playing some high bandwidth video games using gateways throughout North America.

The Starlink program was stung by early comments that the program was negatively affecting astronomy and SpaceX

added that it "continues to monitor the visibility of the satellites as they approach their final orbit" and that they will be measured for their visibility from the ground once there. Those comments are likely meant to address concerns lodged by astronomers about the reflectivity of Starlink spacecraft

The satellites are designed to completely disintegrate upon entering Earth's atmosphere, and the failures may help drive future iterations.

Previous Coverage
Most of SpaceX's Starlink Internet Satellites are Already on Track
SpaceX Satellites Pose New Headache for Astronomers
Third Time's the Charm! SpaceX Launch Good; Starlink Satellite Deployment Coming Up [Updated]
SpaceX to Launch 60 Starlink Satellites: Postponed 1 Day Due to Upper Altitude Winds [UPDATE 2]
SpaceX to Launch 60 Starlink Satellites at Once, and More
SpaceX's First Dedicated Starlink Launch Set for May; Amazon Hired SpaceX Execs for Project Kuiper

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Microsoft is seeking to join Linux private security board

Microsoft's relationship with the Linux community wasn't exactly rosy under Ballmer, who is notorious for having hated Linux with a passion. Satya Nadella has been working to change that, and the company is a high-paying, platinum member of the Linux Foundation, a move that has been treated with skepticism by the community, given its anti-establishment inclinations.

In a new move, the company is looking to join the linux-distros and oss-security mailing lists, which are used by representatives from Linux distributions as a private channel where they can report and coordinate on security issues – which one depending on the severity and whether they've been disclosed to the public.

[...] [Sasha] Levin, who is an active contributor to the Linux Kernel, also noted that Microsoft's Linux builds are not based on other distributions from members such as Ubuntu, Debian, Suse, Red Hat and Chrome OS, and that Greg Kroah-Hartman from the Linux Foundation can vouch for him.

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

https://puri.sm/posts/purisms-librem-key-is-now-the-first-and-only-usb-security-token-to-be-made-in-the-usa/

[...] Initially manufactured in-part by partner Nitrokey, Purism is now manufacturing Librem Keys entirely from Purism’s Carlsbad, California headquarters – the same U.S. facility used to manufacture its Librem 5 smartphone devkits in 2018. Version 2 also stores up to 4096-bit RSA keys and up to 512-bit ECC keys and securely generates keys directly on the device.

Supply chain security is a rising concern due to the lack of control hardware companies have over manufacturing links. Threats include security hacks, malware concerns, cyber-espionage, and even copyright theft. Purism sees protection of its supply chain as an existentially important issue, and has invested in supply chain improvements including the launch of Librem Key V2.

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upstart writes for Bytram:

Researchers teleport information within a diamond

"Quantum teleportation permits the transfer of quantum information into an otherwise inaccessible space," said Hideo Kosaka, a professor of engineering at Yokohama National University and an author on the study. "It also permits the transfer of information into a quantum memory without revealing or destroying the stored quantum information."

The inaccessible space, in this case, consisted of carbon atoms in diamond. Made of linked, yet individually contained, carbon atoms, a diamond holds the perfect conditions for quantum teleportation.

A carbon atom holds six protons and six neutrons in its nucleus, surrounded by six spinning electrons. As the atoms bond into a diamond, they form a notably strong lattice. However, diamonds can have complex defects, such as when a nitrogen atom exists in one of two adjacent vacancies where carbon atoms should be. This defect is called a nitrogen vacancy center.

Surrounded by carbon atoms, the nucleus structure of the nitrogen atom creates what Kosaka calls a nanomagnet.

To manipulate an electron and a carbon isotope in the vacancy, Kosaka and the team attached a wire about a quarter the width of a human hair to the surface of a diamond. They applied a microwave and a radio wave to the wire to build an oscillating magnetic field around the diamond. They shaped the microwave to create the optimal, controlled conditions for the transfer of quantum information within the diamond.

Kosaka then used the nitrogen nanomagnet to anchor an electron. Using the microwave and radio waves, Kosaka forced the electron spin to entangle with a carbon nuclear spin—the angular momentum of the electron and the nucleus of a carbon atom. The electron spin breaks down under a magnetic field created by the nanomagnet, making it susceptible to entanglement. Once the two pieces are entangled, meaning their physical characteristics are so intertwined they cannot be described individually, a photon that holds quantum information is introduced, and the electron absorbs the photon. The absorption allows the polarization state of the photon to be transferred into the carbon, which is mediated by the entangled electron, demonstrating a teleportation of information at the quantum level.

Quantum teleportation-based state transfer of photon polarization into a carbon spin in diamond (DOI: 10.1038/s42005-019-0158-0)

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upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Boosting amino acid derivative may be a treatment for schizophrenia

Many psychiatric drugs act on the receptors or transporters of certain neurotransmitters in the brain. However, there is a great need for alternatives, and research is looking at other targets along the brain's metabolic pathways. Lack of glycine betaine contributes to brain pathology in schizophrenia, and new research from the RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) shows that betaine supplementation can counteract psychiatric symptoms in mice.

Betaine comes from a normal diet but is also synthesized in the body where it contributes to metabolism in various ways, including as an anti-inflammatory agent. Levels of betaine (glycine betaine or trimethylglycine) in the blood plasma of patients with schizophrenia has previously been found to be low, which suggested it is a possible therapeutic target.

In the new study, mice missing the Chdh gene, which is involved in making betaine, showed depressive behaviors and greatly reduced betaine levels in both the brain and blood. Betaine levels in the brain recovered when the it was given to the mice as a supplement in drinking water, demonstrating that betaine can pass through the blood-brain barrier.

Psychedelic drugs like PCP and methamphetamine can also produce schizophrenia-like behaviors in both humans and mice. The researchers tested whether betaine supplementation could help alleviate symptoms induced by PCP and methamphetamine in mice. They found that betaine not only improved cognitive deficits and behavioral abnormalities, it also reversed oxidative stress at the molecular level. Oxidative stress is thought to be one mechanism through which these drugs cause psychiatric symptoms in humans.

Investigation of betaine as a novel psychotherapeutic for schizophrenia (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2019.05.062) (DX)

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RandomFactor writes:

NASA, the Texas Historical Commission and National Park Service have restored the Apollo era Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR) to its Apollo 15 configuration.

The Apollo 15 configuration was used as the most complete records are available for that mission. Tours of Johnson Space Center will include taking guests to the actual Mission Control where visitors

will hear the real voices of the flight controllers from 50 years ago just as Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were preparing to begin their descent to the lunar surface. Taking a seat in the same glassed-in viewing gallery where the astronauts' families and other guests witnessed the mission unfold live in 1969, the public will watch as the consoles and screens play back the first moon landing, moonwalk and the astronauts' return to Earth.

The restoration included removing the original cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays and backlight assemblies and replacing them

with modern electronics and screens, enabling the consoles to glow again as they did half a century ago. Each of the control stations now shine with data and indicators as it did when it was in active use.

"They're artifacts and so you don't destroy artifacts," said Sandra Tetley, NASA's historic preservation officer at Johnson Space Center. "We took the CRTs out and they've been saved. We put flat screens [in their place] and then they recreated the fronts. Behind the buttons are LED lights. So everything is placed in there non-destructively."

The recreation extends from the floor to the ceiling. Carpet, wallpaper, paint fragments, personal artifacts, coffee cups, ashtrays, cigarettes, an actual RC Cola pull tab can and many other items down to the brand of the pens flight controllers used were evaluated, analyzed and compared against archival photos and sourced, reused or recreated.

Included in the article is a time lapse video of the restoration and an extensive photo gallery.

The site was designated a national historic landmark in 1985.

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RandomFactor writes:

Spanish and American researchers from several organizations have announced the discovery of a new property of light - Self-Torque.

Researchers were working with multiple laser beams exhibiting twisting or Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) which they fired into a cloud of Argon gas forcing them to overlap.

[the beams] joined and were emitted as a single beam from the other side of the argon cloud. The result was a type of vortex beam. The researchers then wondered what would happen if the lasers had different orbital angular momentum and if they were slightly out of sync. This resulted in a beam that looked like a corkscrew with a gradually changing twist. And when the beam struck a flat surface, it looked like a crescent moon. The researchers noted that looked at another way, a single photon at the front of the beam was orbiting around its center more slowly than a photon at the back of the beam. The researchers promptly dubbed the new property self-torque—and not only is it a newly discovered property of light, it is also one that has never even been predicted.

The researchers indicate this behavior might be used to modulate the OAM of light similar to how frequencies are modulated in communications equipment, the journal article concludes that

because the OAM value is changing on femtosecond time scales, at wavelengths much shorter than those of visible light, self-torqued [high harmonic generation (HHG)] beams can be extraordinary tools for laser-matter manipulation on attosecond time and nanometer spatial scales.

Useful if you want to engrave 9906947-XB71 on your work.

Journal Reference
Laura Rego et al. Generation of extreme-ultraviolet beams with time-varying orbital angular momentum, Science (2019). DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw9486

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RandomFactor writes:

Just a few months ago in April, Microsoft announced it would be shutting down its DRM-locked eBook store. On Monday, July 1st, it will finally shut down the DRM servers that allow people to read the books they purchased there.

According to Microsoft's FAQ on the shutdown

What happens to books I've already purchased?

You can continue to read books you've purchased until July 2019 when they will no longer be available, and you will receive a full refund of the original purchase price.

There's more - even free ebooks will go away

What happens to my free books?

You can continue to read free books you've downloaded until July 2019 when they will no longer be accessible.

This also applies if the book is out of copyright, free, or has been annotated with your own notes and research.

According to author Cory Doctorow, who predicted this very event in a speech to Microsoft Research 15 years ago:

This puts the difference between DRM-locked media and unencumbered media into sharp contrast. I have bought a lot of MP3s over the years, thousands of them, and many of the retailers I purchased from are long gone, but I still have the MP3s. Likewise, I have bought many books from long-defunct booksellers and even defunct publishers, but I still own those books.

In the event a purchaser still has the same credit card they purchased an eBook from Microsoft with up to seven years ago, refunds for the original purchase price (not inflation adjusted) will be credited back to it. Those that do not still have the original purchase mechanism on file will receive a credit on the same virtual store that is removing their books.

Cold comfort considering a virtual book burning won't keep you very warm.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

SpaceX targets 2021 commercial Starship launch

The first commercial mission for SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy launch system will likely take place in 2021, a company executive said June 26.

Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX's vice president of commercial sales, said the company is in talks with prospective customers for the first commercial launch of that system roughly two years from now. "We are in discussions with three different customers as we speak right now to be that first mission," Hofeller said at the APSAT conference here. "Those are all telecom companies."

[...] Hofeller said the discounted pricing SpaceX gave to early customers of Falcon 9 missions with pre-flown first-stage boosters is now the company's normal pricing. SpaceX Founder Elon Musk said last year that previously flown booster missions were priced "around $50 million," down from $62 million. Musk said SpaceX's prices would continue to decline, too. Hofeller reiterated that prices would keep dropping through the introduction of Super Heavy and Starship. The fully reusable nature of the launch system enables those lower prices, he said.

Being fully reusable also opens up new mission possibilities, he said. "You could potentially recapture a satellite and bring it down if you wanted to," Hofeller said. "It's very similar to the [space] shuttle bay in that regard. So we have this tool, and we are challenging the industry: what would you do with it?"

Starship.

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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1944

Cybercriminals are increasingly using shimmers instead of skimmers in attacks targeting automated teller machines, Flashpoint reports.

Skimmers are small devices nearly indistinguishable from legitimate card readers, which have been designed to steal the data from the card’s magnetic stripe, thus allowing hackers to clone cards. These devices can fit over an existing card reader and are typically difficult to notice.

The widespread implementation of the Europay Mastercard Visa (EMV) payment method via chip cards, prevents the use of skimmers by storing data on integrated circuits. Attackers are now focusing on capturing data from the chip, and this is where shimmers enter stage.

First detailed in 2016, these thin devices are much smaller than skimmers and are usually positioned between the chip and the chip reader inside an ATM or point-of-sale system. They include flash storage and a microchip and store copied payment card data, which is then dumped onto the magnetic stripe of a fraudulent card.

[...] Chip cards in theory cannot be cloned due to an integrated circuit card verification value (iCVV), which differs from the more familiar CVV number stored on magnetic stripes. iCVVs prevent the copying of magnetic-stripe data from the chip, and the creation of counterfeit magnetic stripe cards using the data.

[...] Attackers take advantage of improperly implemented EMV chip card standard to target less secure configurations, such as Static Data Authentication (SDA) EMV cards, which are slowly being replaced with Dynamic Data Authentication (DDA), and Combined Data Authentication (CDA).

Source: https://www.securityweek.com/hackers-favoring-shimmers-over-skimmers-atm-attacks

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takyon writes:

Toshiba & WD NAND Production Hit By Power Outage: 6 Exabytes Lost

Toshiba Memory and Western Digital on Friday disclosed that an unexpected power outage in the Yokkaichi province in Japan on June 15 affected the manufacturing facilities that are jointly operated. Right now, production facilities are partially halted and they are expected to resume operations only by mid-July.

Western Digital says that the 13-minute power outage impacted wafers that were processed, the facilities, and production equipment. The company indicates that the incident will reduce its NAND flash wafer supply in Q3 by approximately 6 EB (exabytes), which is believed to be about a half of the company's quarterly supply of NAND. Toshiba does not disclose the impact the outage will have on its NAND wafer supply in the coming months, but confirms that the fabs are partially suspended at the moment. Keeping in mind that Toshiba generally uses more capacity of the fabs than WD, the impact on its supply could be significantly higher than 6 EB with some estimating that it could be as high as ~9 EB.

Both companies are assessing the damage at the moment, so the financial harm of the incident is unclear. Not even counting potential damage to production tools and other equipment used at the fabs, 6 EB of NAND cost a lot of money. Furthermore, analysts from TrendForce believe that a consequence of the outage will be some loss of confidence from clients of both companies, which will have a financial impact as well.

1 exabyte = 1 million terabytes.

Related: TSMC Fab 14 B hit by Massive Wafer Defection due to Chemical Contamination, 16/12nm Production Line
TSMC Contamination Issue Expected to Result in $550 Million in Lost Revenue

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upstart writes for Bytram:

Climate impact of clouds made from airplane contrails may triple by 2050

In the right conditions, airplane contrails can linger in the sky as contrail cirrus—ice clouds that can trap heat inside the Earth's atmosphere. Their climate impact has been largely neglected in global schemes to offset aviation emissions, even though contrail cirrus have contributed more to warming the atmosphere than all CO2 emitted by aircraft since the start of aviation. A new study published in the European Geosciences Union (EGU) journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics has found that, due to air traffic activity, the climate impact of contrail cirrus will be even more significant in the future, tripling by 2050.

Contrail cirrus change global cloudiness, which creates an imbalance in the Earth's radiation budget—called 'radiative forcing' - that results in warming of the planet. The larger this radiative forcing, the more significant the climate impact. In 2005, air traffic made up about 5% of all anthropogenic radiative forcing, with contrail cirrus being the largest contributor to aviation's climate impact.

"It is important to recognise the significant impact of non-CO2 emissions, such as contrail cirrus, on climate and to take those effects into consideration when setting up emission trading systems or schemes like the Corsia agreement," says Lisa Bock, a researcher at DLR, the German Aerospace Center, and lead-author of the new study. Corsia, the UN's scheme to offset air traffic carbon emissions from 2020, ignores the non-CO2 climate impacts of aviation.

But the new Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics study shows these non-CO2 climate impacts cannot be neglected. Bock and her colleague Ulrike Burkhardt estimate that contrail cirrus radiative forcing will be 3 times larger in 2050 than in 2006. This increase is predicted to be faster than the rise in CO2 radiative forcing since expected fuel efficiency measures will reduce CO2 emissions.

Contrail cirrus radiative forcing for future air traffic (DOI: 10.5194/acp-19-8163-2019)

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upstart writes for Bytram:

Space station mold survives high doses of ionizing radiation

The International Space Station, like all human habitats in space, has a nagging mold problem. Astronauts on the ISS spend hours every week cleaning the inside of the station's walls to prevent mold from becoming a health problem.

New research being presented here finds mold spores may also survive on the outside walls of spacecraft.

Spores of the two most common types of mold on the ISS, Aspergillus and Pennicillium, survive X-ray exposure at 200 times the dose that would kill a human, according to Marta Cortesão, a microbiologist at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne, who will present the new research Friday at the 2019 Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon 2019).

Pennicillium and Aspergillus species are not usually harmful, but inhaling their spores in large amounts can sicken people with weakened immune systems. Mold spores can withstand extreme temperatures, ultraviolet light, chemicals and dry conditions. This resiliency makes them hard to kill.

"We now know that [fungal spores] resist radiation much more than we thought they would, to the point where we need to take them into consideration when we are cleaning spacecraft, inside and outside," Cortesao said. "If we're planning a long duration mission, we can plan on having these mold spores with us because probably they will survive the space travel."

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Given that most sane people now have blocked google analytics, Fast Company reports that the new recaptcha wants to embed itself everywhere and declare those who don't use chrome or aren't signed in at their google account as bots, and thus not worthy of accessing the internet.

“It’s a better experience for users. Everyone has failed a Captcha,” says Cy Khormaee, the reCaptcha product lead at Google. Instead, Google analyzes the way users navigate through a website and assigns them a risk score based on how malicious their behavior is. Khormaee won’t share what signals Google uses to determine these scores because he says that would make it easier for scammers to imitate benign users, but he believes that this new version of reCaptcha makes it incredibly difficult for bots or Captcha farmers—humans who are paid tiny amounts to break Captchas online—to fool Google’s system.

[...]“You have to understand what behavior on the site should be and mimic that well enough to fool us,” he says. “That’s a really hard problem versus the general problem of, ‘Pretend like I’m a human.'” Website administrators then get access to their visitors’ risk scores and can decide how to handle them: For instance, if a user with a high risk score attempts to log in, the website can set rules to ask them to enter additional verification information through two-factor authentication. As Khormaee put it, the “worst case is we have a little inconvenience for legitimate users, but if there is an adversary, we prevent your account from being stolen.”

[...]To make this risk-score system work accurately, website administrators are supposed to embed reCaptcha v3 code on all of the pages of their website, not just on forms or log-in pages. Then, reCaptcha learns over time how their website’s users typically act, helping the machine learning algorithm underlying it to generate more accurate risk scores. Because reCaptcha v3 is likely to be on every page of a website if you’re signed into your Google account there’s a chance Google is getting data about every single webpage you go to that is embedded with reCaptcha v3—and there many be no visual indication on the site that it’s happening, beyond a small reCaptcha logo hidden in the corner.

And that information is just one request, subpoena, or National Security Letter away from being in the hands of the government, too.

Original Submission